OVL FY19 net profit soars 71% on 8% growth in overseas oil production

The overseas investment arm of ONGC showed a turnover rise to 40.5 per cent to Rs 14,632 crore

ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), on Friday reported a 71 per cent jump in its 2018-19 fiscal year net profit on the back of a spike in crude oil production.

Consolidated net profit in April 2018 to March 2019 period at Rs 1,682 crore was 71.4 per cent higher than Rs 981 crore net profit in the previous financial year, the company said in a statement here.

OVL is the unlisted overseas arm of ONGC and is not obligated to report quarterly earning numbers.

Turnover rose 40.5 per cent to Rs 14,632 crore.

This came on the back of an 8 per cent surge in crude oil production from assets the company has in foreign countries. Oil production rose to 10.1 million tonnes in 2018-19 from 9.35 million tonnes in the previous year.

Natural gas output, however, fell 1.6 per cent to 4.73 billion cubic meters.

OVL holds a stake in 41 oil and gas assets in 20 countries spanning from Brazil to New Zealand.

The company said production from South Sudan's Greater Pioneer Operating Company (GPOC) has resumed during the year after prolonged shutdown since December 2013. Presently, the block is flowing crude oil at about 35,000 barrels per day.

The firm also struck oil for the second time in a Colombian block, CPO-5. "The well flowed at a self-flow rate of about 4,000 barrels per day," the statement said adding oil was first discovered on the block in 2017.

"With the two wells, current production from CPO-5 is more than 8,000 barrels per day," it said.

During the year, the company and its partner in Mozambique's giant Rovuma Offshore Area 1 gas field have sold around 11 million tonnes per annum of the LNG that will be produced from the project to several global consumers and traders.

Also, the company shipped the first equity oil cargo from Lower Zakum Concession in UAE to group refinery at Mangalore.

OVL's assets abroad hold in-place reserves of about 676 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas.